Northeast education ministers meet to discuss new education policy

Agartala: Education ministers of all eight Northeastern states will meet in Agartala on Friday to discuss the country's proposed education policy, an official said on Tuesday.

"MHRD minister Smriti Irani would preside over the day-long meet of education ministers of northeastern states on September 18," Tripura education department secretary Samarjit Bhowmik told reporters.

"The proposed national education policy would be discussed in the meeting. All the northeastern states would give their views about the proposed education policy," he said.

The official said Friday's meeting would be a follow up meeting of the 63rd meeting of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) that was held in New Delhi on August 19.

Tripura Education Minister Tapan Chakraborty said in the CABE meeting, most northeastern states wanted to remove the 'no-detention policy' at the elementary school level (up to class eight).

Chakraborty told reporters: "The eight northeastern states, along with most states of the country, are not only against the 'no-detention policy' but are also in an awkward position due to the lack of trained teachers even though the Right to Education Act (RTE), 2009, made this mandatory."

He said the CABE meeting had decided that the states would formally provide their views to the central government on 'no-detention policy', in writing.

"However, we (Tripura) and most of the other states want to continue the CCE (Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation). The CCE system should continue up to class X," he added.

CCE refers to a system of school-based assessment that covers all aspects of students' development.

The minister said the Left Front government strongly supported the plan for a new education policy, a process initiated by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance government.

(IANS)